WHIDDON VALLEY EVANGEL WINTER 2000

Dear friends and neighbours in Whiddon Valley

It hardly seems to be nearly 12 months since we were looking
forward to the end of 1999 and the launch of a new Millennium.
This time last year there was a sense of excitement and
anticipation. The London Eye, that giant wheel on the bank of the
River Thames was about to open - but did not open on time because
of technical problems. Then there was the Millennium Dome - its
doors were opened on time with a massive New Year party - but the
Dome has failed to live up to its promise to prosper financially
and has cost the country a lot of money.

Promises of success followed by realisations of failure are
commonplace in life. Aims are set - targets are in sight -
intentions are honourable - but are often unachievable. We tend
to fall short and readjust our aim because we are falling short.
We set out with high ideals - but things do not seem to work out
in the way we planned them.

How readilly we can identify with these thoughts! Whether it
be in the realms of education, of marriage, of parenting or any
other aspect of social life, we tend to have regrets. It may
surprise you that God already knew of these aspects of the human
personality when the Bible, His Book, was written. "All have
sinned and fall short of the glory (standards) of
God."1 and "There is none that is righteous, no not
one."2 It has the capacity to affirm our weakness and
to comfort us, that we are all in the same boat.

Do we have to stay this way? Are we destined to limp from one
failure to another and never know any dimension of success in our
lives? The Bible has so much more to say of an encouraging and
uplifting nature that can give us hope. God tells us that even
though our sins (breakages of the Ten Commandments) are bright
red and conspicuous - yet they can be made to appear as white as
snow.3 This is only possible, according to the Bible,
when a person trusts the success of Jesus Christ, the perfect man
(who is described elsewhere in this Evangel). He invites us to
trust Him and to share in the glories of His successful life.
Faith in Jesus Christ is being on His side - standing with Him
and experiencing forgiveness, pardon and a new start in life with
a fresh set of values and aims - the principle aim to please Him
rather than ourselfs. His invitations are (and I commend them to
you) "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." These are
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 11 v 28 -
30.

With warm wishes to everyone in Whiddon Valley.

Yours sincerely

D. W. KAY

1. Romans 3 v 23
2. Romans 3 v 10
3. Isaiah 1 v 18

MEET SUE THE T. REX

From Creation Ex Nihilo Vol. 22 No. 2 Sept - Nov 2000

On 17th May 2000 an amazingly complete 41ft long skeleton of a
Tyrannosaurus Rex was unveiled at the field museum of Natural
History in Chicago. The huge creature named Sue after Sue
Hendrickson who discovered it in 1990, was 13ft tall at the hip,
weighed 7 tonnes and had teeth as long as a human forearm.

It also showed amazing design. CAT scans of its skull show
that its senses were acute. The Jurassic Park scene in which a T.
Rex failed to detect a child literally under its nose is
mythical. The T. Rex could see and hear well, but its sense of
smell was amazing. Their nerves processing their sense of smell
were the size of a grapefruit, and the bundle of nerves sending
the smell signals to the brain were thicker than the spinal cord.
It was also built to travel 12-14ft with each stride. Sue had a
broken rib, a lower leg bone deformed by infection and teeth
marks from other T. Rexes. Evidence of blood cells found in other
T. Rex bones shows that these creatures could not be millions of
years old as supposed by such populist T.V. programmes as walking
with dinosaurs. This is because blood and hemoglobin break down
after only tens of thousands of years at the most. The report
from National Geographic stated that Sue was washed into the
position she was found by a flood. These details are consistent
with Biblical teaching on the flood and origin of species. This
was the Flood of Noah which Jesus himself affirmed as real. The
injuries Sue had sustained are also consistent with the Biblical
teaching on death and suffering which only entered the world
through the sin of Adam. Not only man suffered, but the whole of
creation bears the marks and effects of sin. The Bible teaches
that such death and suffering could not be part of what was God's
very good creation. These are evidences of a post fall, sin
cursed would. Many people use the World around us to deny God and
promote man. The world around us however is something which ought
rather to point man to God.

MY STORY

Like many of my generation born before the outbreak of World
War II, I attended church and Sunday School regularly. There I
observed the faith and conduct of those for whom Christianity was
a way of life. As for the Bible, it never occured to me that it
was anything but a direct revelation from God. Many of its verses
and ideas have remained in my mind from those early years. Was I,
in my mid-teens, being overly naive and uncritical about
Christian things? I don't think so. What I had been taught about
Chrisianity seemed to make sense. In particular, it appeared to
offer solid answers to people's deepest spiritual longings - the
need to find lasting happiness, love, peace, hope and so on.

However, I had a deep - seated problem. What I knew about God
was mentally satisfying; but it was outside by experience
experimentally. My mind engaged the things of God, but my heart
and will did not. I knew myself to be a sinner before God who
needed, even wanted, His forgiveness. But I was holding back. For
some reason I was unable to fully identify with Jesus Christ and
all the things I knew to be true. Why was this?

My great anxiety was that having started with God I would be
unable to 'keep it up'. In other words I thought that all the
'doing' and 'going on' had to come from me. That kind of thinking
is perfectly understandable but very mistaken. I had yet to learn
that it wasn't a guestion of my doing my best to hold onto Him,
but of allowing a loving and all-powerful God to take hold of me.
It was during the afternoon of 15th February 1953 that God
graciously shined the light of His truth into my soul, moving me
to repent and believe. I was given a deep peace and an
indescribable joy that has remained to this day. This was for
real! God in His mercy had changed my life completely - from the
inside out. I had been given (with no input from me) a new
nature, new hopes and aspirations and a new destiny. The Bible
was right. 'Salvation is of the Lord'.

Many years have passed since that time; not once have I been
tempted to wonder whether I would be able to 'keep it up'. In
many experiences in the army, at college, in teaching, in family
life and now in retirement, I have been conscious of being borne
up and along by the Spirit of the Living God.

So, with a God given faith and hope I press on, encouraged by
the Lord's words to the Apostle Paul:

'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made
perfect in (your) weakness.'